The Forgotten Luna: A Second Chance

Chapter 2 The Shadow Luna's Exit

I walked past him without answering. He followed me into our chambers.

Half my clothes were gone from the wardrobe. Champagne-colored gowns and thin silk robes filled the empty space, all carrying Selena’s jasmine perfume.

My leather-bound books and wool coats had been packed into cardboard boxes in the corner. Selena had moved in before I had moved out.

Caleb followed my stare to the wardrobe and set his jaw.

"Selena’s old room is drafty. She’s more fragile than you are, Elora. She needs the main hearth."

He waved toward the bed and wardrobe. "It’s only for the ceremony. Your position as my mate isn’t changing. Can’t you be mature about this? Stop turning everything into a melodrama."

Mature. His lover was in my room, and I was supposed to make it easy for them.

Once, I would have reminded him whose blood kept the Shadowlands’ cold outside these walls. I might even have asked what position he thought I had left.

I pulled my suitcase from under the bed. Its wheels rattled over the stone.

"What are you doing?" Caleb laughed. "Running to your mother’s cabin until I beg you to come back? Grow up, Elora."

I opened the suitcase on the bed. He could call it a tantrum if that kept him from looking closer.

My clothes filled half the case. Then I took a thick folder from my bag and set it on the vanity.

"Before you go back to your party, I need you to sign this."

He came over with a scowl. "I don’t have time for pack business."

"It’s the quarterly authorization packet." I held up the cover. The contents were printed in plain type: medical supplies, Luna authority review, and barrier-core access.

"Alistair needs it filed before the full moon."

He flipped straight to the acknowledgment page. The final section, *Relinquishment of Luna Authority and Revocation of Barrier Core Access*, passed under his thumb unread.

Caleb took the pen and signed over the dense text without another glance.

Caleb Lucius Thorne.

The ink dried under his hand.

He tossed the folder onto the bed. "There. Are you done being difficult?"

Selena appeared in the doorway wearing one of Caleb’s robes. She smiled at me, then looked up at him with wet eyes.

"Is everything all right? I don’t want to cause trouble."

Caleb drew her against his side. "Elora is emotional. Go back to the party. I’ll handle her."

He stepped into the corridor to call a guard. Once his back was turned, Selena crossed to my vanity and picked up a silver hairpin.

"What a waste," she said. "All that work, and no one even sees you. Once I have the mark, the border trade routes are mine. This pack needs wealth, Elora, not another bowl of your blood."

Inside my pocket, I tapped the voice recorder. "Is that so?"

"Of course." She watched herself in the mirror. "Caleb is strong, but give him a pretty face and a few tears and he’ll do anything. You never learned that trick."

The pin struck the vanity with a clatter. Selena walked out to join him.

I could not remember the last time I had cried.

The recorder kept counting. Beside it, Caleb’s name crossed the revocation page.